Has this ever happened to you. Last Summer, I put together a couple of tutorials for inspired ideas and one of them included this scrappy flower covered lantern. I quickly threw it together to make a tight timeline and I was really happy with the results.
Fast forward a few weeks later and, while the girls and I were getting some camp shopping done at the mall, we passed a pottery barn kids and I stopped in my tracks. There they were. Paper lanterns covered in fabric flowers. Very similar to my project and I said to the girls - everyone is going to think that I did a how-to version of those lanterns - yet I had never seen them before (or ... at least I didn't think that I had)
This spring I did a how-to stamped beach bag for the blog. I was inspired by a fabric that I had come across from spoonflower.
Fast forward last week when I took the time to look at a PBTeen email that I had received about summer accessories. Look what I found. Wow - kind of similar huh?
I have a friend that works on television and magazine projects and she told me she has to actually remove herself from the blogosphere and pinterest pages from time to time, in order to ensure she doesn't accidentally hijack an existing project.
I can say with complete honesty that I did not see these products when I worked on those projects.
It does make me think that sometimes we can be so influenced by trends or ideas without ever realizing it. Have you ever thought of a color combination and then seen it in a magazine and thought to yourself, hey I thought of that first? Chances are we didn't realize that we have been subtly influenced by that color in all the images we see in catalogues, magazines and pinterest.
I'm curious. Am I the only one that has felt like this? Do you ever think you have an original idea only to see it somewhere else. How do you overcome the risk of an unintentional "copycat"?
